Return to royalty: St. Paul man believes he's found the original king and queen of Winter Carnival

An image of King Borealis from the front page of the Feb. 4, 1886, St. Paul Daily Globe newspaper. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Patrick Hill of St. Paul doesn't want to rewrite St. Paul Winter Carnival history.

He just wants to correct it.

The amateur historian says he accidentally discovered the true identity of the first king and queen, crowned 128 years ago, in 1886, while researching a different topic related to the annual festival.

"I was looking into another matter, related to the Winter Carnival legend and St. Paul's seven hills," Hill says. "I wound up coming across a number of other Winter Carnival items. One that caught my interest was the fact that Gen. Richard W. Johnson was the first Ice King."

That was unexpected.

Official Winter Carnival lore says William Hamm Sr., founder of Hamm's Brewery, was Borealis Rex, the name given to the first Ice King (now known as King Boreas).

"I knew that Hamm had always been identified as the first," Hill says.

Hill was familiar, however, with Johnson.

"I've been giving Civil War tours at Oakland Cemetery (in St. Paul) for the last 18 years, and Johnson is on my tour," he says. "Plus, I knew that the guy identified as the first Fire King (now known as Vulcanus Rex) was also in my cemetery."

Johnson had the laurels to be king: He was a Civil War hero, a candidate for governor (though unsuccessful), an instructor of military science at the University of Minnesota and brother-in-law to former Gov. Henry H. Sibley.

Intrigued, Hill kept digging.

"As I started looking into Johnson's connections, I came across Mrs. Brooks," Hill says.

"Mrs. L.L.C. Brooks" was listed in local newspapers in 1886 as the first Queen of the Snows, but this didn't seem right, either. In modern times, "Mrs. Albert Scheffer" had been thought to be the first.

"This led me to want to know more," Hill says, "and how (both) had been misidentified."

Hill says he thinks he knows why the mistake happened: In a Jan. 19 editorial Hill wrote for the Pioneer Press (read it at bit.ly/1bf6Yrv), Hill explains that Hamm and Scheffer played the roles of King and Queen of Karneval, a traditional pre-Lent celebration that was moved up a few weeks in 1886 to be part of the first St. Paul Winter Carnival. Karneval festivities included costumes, a parade and a ball.

Hill hasn't figured out when the Karneval king and queen started to be identified as the Carnival king and queen. But he thinks the error has been repeated for at least 75 years.

It's not that unusual, he says.

"This kind of thing happens all the time," Hill says. "I can't explain it, other than we're all fallible. Someone makes a mistake and others rely on it. It reminds me of that quote, 'If you say something often enough, people will start to believe it.

An image of the Queen of Snow from the front page of the Feb. 4, 1886, St. Paul Daily Globe newspaper. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)

' "

Hill is hoping others may have more information about the first king and queen, especially the queen.

"I finally found her name -- Mary -- in a 1900 census," Hill says.

(Even in the 1970s, married women were often identified in newspapers only by the courtesy title of Mrs., followed by their husband's first and last names.)

"I know she's a Pittsburgh girl, and her maiden name was Harbaugh," Hill says. "Her dad was from Ohio, her mom was from Vermont. I think her father, Springer Harbaugh, may have been involved in some of the land speculation and boom of the 1880s. He and his son-in-law, Mary's husband (Lornzo Las Cassino Brooks), ran an investment business together. I suspect that Springer was the source of the family's wealth.

"I can only guess that Mary must have been quite a looker -- I haven't found any photos of her yet," Hill says. "Because although her husband and father were well connected in the business community, they weren't that well connected."

Hill is happy to have a chance to set history right.

"I just would like Gen. Johnson and Mary Brooks to get their due," he says. "They made a great contribution to the early success of the carnival, and I'm really happy it's getting straightened out."

The Pioneer Press attempted to confirm the names separately and did find unidentified images in an archived newspaper distributed through the Library of Congress. Johnson and Brooks also are credited as the first king and queen in "Fire & Ice: The History of the Saint Paul Winter Carnival" by Moira F. Harris. When the Pioneer Press contacted a Winter Carnival spokeswoman about the matter, she referred the question to local Winter Carnival historians.

"I think, at one time, I came upon those names -- Johnson and Brooks -- during my research," says Denny Harris, who has been active in the St. Paul Winter Carnival since 1959. "I think I had their names in this three-ring binder that has all the names of the kings and queens in it. Then someone came along and said those names weren't right. So I changed them."